Reuters reported that investors had withdrawn a record $7.1 billion from the space and fled exchange-traded funds "at the most frantic pace in six months," according to data released Thursday.

Keenan noted that equity markets have seen selloffs in recent months amid an escalation of geopolitical risk in Gaza and between Russia and Ukraine.

"It wasn't specific to a credit story," he said.

Keenan said that a slowdown in Europe, as well as "slow and stable growth" in the United States, will keep downward pressure on yields.

"We haven't seen that acceleration, but that's hard to get to because the world still has too much leverage in it," he said. "That is a headwind. The demographics, the leverage, these are what's slowing down the overall economy. Rates can go up, but the level of rates is still going to remain low because of these reasons."